Behind the doors of every hospital is an army of people going above and beyond to provide support to clinical and nursing staff.
This week we want to thank all our volunteers who are playing a vital role at this challenging time assisting our services in a variety of roles.
It is Volunteers Week and they have been working in a variety of roles including: manning hand sanitising stations, wiping down touch points, facilities support (help desk, bed runners, domestic service), cleaning (toilets, general areas, wheel chairs), R&R Hub (serving drinks, cleaning) and sorting public donations to name just a few.
More than 1,000 people have offered their support to NHSGGC and in just one week alone, volunteers contributed almost 600 hours of help across our services.
Adrian Walaszek is a volunteer at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and is helping distribute the many donations coming into the hospital from the public.
He said: “My main role is to unpack the donations, sort and distribute to the wards across the hospital.
“The thing I am particularly proud of is having the opportunity to help.”
Chiara is also a volunteer at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Chiara is from Italy and wanted to find a way of saying her personal thanks to all the Scottish people for their hospitality by volunteering during COVID-19.
Margaret McGuire, Nursing Director, said: “We are so grateful to our volunteers, they are making a huge difference to our patients, families and staff, their contribution is invaluable.
“I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge and heartfelt thank you each and every one of our volunteers, they are heroes to us all.”
Harry Balch, Volunteer Manager added: “At the start of lockdown we received an overwhelming response from people wanting to volunteer during COVID-19 and we are extremely grateful to each and every one of them.
“They are providing support at our hand gel stations, distributing donations across wards and way finding for those people coming into our hospitals. This is just some of the ways they are helping support our staff.
“Volunteers are playing a major role across Greater Glasgow and Clyde and their help at this time is invaluable.”